


Living In A Ghost Town

by Cattatonically



Category: Free!
Genre: Half-demon Haru, M/M, Paranormal investigator Sousuke, Pining, Sass and Snark, Sort Of, Sousuke is a dumbass but we love him anyway
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-07
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:53:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24581122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cattatonically/pseuds/Cattatonically
Summary: Yamazaki Sousuke had been called in for a job. A job that would prove to be the bane of his existence.
Relationships: Minor or Background Relationship(s), Nanase Haruka/Yamazaki Sousuke
Comments: 4
Kudos: 44





	Living In A Ghost Town

Yamazaki Sousuke had been called in for a job. A job that required assistance. Assistance from a very particular person. Assistance that Sousuke really didn’t want to ask for, but assistance that was required nonetheless. 

Mikoshiba Seijuurou was known in the area as a wheeler and dealer. He bought houses on the cheap, flipped them, and resold them for huge profit. Generally, no one minded this very much - it brought in business, and business was good for the community. Also, Mikoshiba’s hefty donations to community services and activities alleviated any misgivings anyone had about how he was using his wealth. 

However, Mikoshiba sometimes ran into a few snags of the paranormal persuasion along the way. And that was usually when Sousuke was called in. 

Sousuke couldn’t quite remember how he got into this line of work. One day, he was having drinks with Rin and Tachibana, and the next he was persuading paranormal beings into not living in the houses Mikoshiba wanted to flip. It was a little unorthodox, but it beat cooking all day in his family’s restaurant. 

And so, when Mikoshiba had called him, Sousuke knew what he had to do.

He gathered his phone, his laptop, and his camera into a messenger bag and did some basic surveillance of the house. It was a standard two-storey house, nothing too showy, but it’d been left standing empty for a while, and the neglect showed. 

Over the course of a week, Sousuke didn’t see anyone, or anything, come or go from the house. But he did see movement from the windows. A slender man with dark hair was making himself quite at home in the house. Sousuke couldn’t quite figure out who, or what, the man was, but a few questions wouldn’t hurt. 

So off he went. Sousuke got out of his car, and knocked on the door. The wood of the porch looked a little healthier than it had a week prior. Sousuke didn’t have much time to ponder that as the door opened.

The slender man inside the house was slightly shorter than Sousuke, with piercing blue eyes and jet black hair. He was really quite pretty. However, one look at those eyes, and the glamour they held, and Sousuke knew. This man was not entire human. Though not entirely non-human either. 

“Listen,” Sousuke said, “this house was recently purchased by a flipper. You need to leave.” The man hummed at Sousuke’s statement, and looked him up and down. 

“Hmm. No. That’s not happening. Bye.” He went to shut the door, but Sousuke stuffed his foot into the opening, just in time. 

“Seriously. Just leave, and there won’t need to be any trouble, legal or otherwise.”

“Oh, tough man intimidating me? Nice try, sweetheart. Scarier than you have tried, and scarier than you have failed.” The man flicked his wrist, and Sousuke stumbled back a step. He was about to retort when the door was unceremoniously slammed in his face. 

Sousuke sighed, returned to his car, and made the call he’d been dreading making for the last ten minutes. 

“I need your expertise, Nitori,” Sousuke said when the man answered the phone. 

“You know that my services come at a price.”

“Yeah yeah, my firstborn and a pint of blood, right?” Nitori chuckled over the line. 

“A wire transfer to the usual account will do just fine. When and where do you need me?”

“Mikoshiba’s new property, as quickly as you can.”

“What are we dealing with?”

“Man, about our age, likely a half-demon.” Nitori hummed. 

“Alright. I can get there tomorrow morning.” 

Business concluded, Sousuke hung up the phone, and drove home. It was going to eat into a chunk of the cash Mikoshiba had given him, but he was sure that calling in Nitori Aiichirou was a good call. Hopefully, he’d forget all about blue-eyed, dark-haired half-demons soon enough. 

— — — 

“He won’t leave,” Nitori stated. Sousuke had met him at the house in order to get rid of the half-demon, and Nitori’s greeting didn’t bode well. 

“And how do you know that?” 

“Gut feeling,” Nitori shrugged. Sousuke hated Nitori’s gut feelings. They were usually very correct, and usually very bad for business. Sousuke sighed. 

“You know, whatever is in that house already hates me. Why do you have to make things more complicated?” Nitori simply shrugged again, and smiled serenely. Sousuke would never understand this man. “Whatever. Let’s get this over with.”

Sousuke walked up to the door, Nitori on his heels, and knocked. The slender man answered, half-naked, in nothing but a pair of tight fitting boxers. Sousuke hated his life. 

“Oh, it’s you sweetheart. What can I do for you?” Sousuke really, really hated his life. 

“I am here to ask you, very kindly, to leave this house.” The man tilted his head, as if considering Sousuke’s request. It was then that he noticed that the house’s sidings looked fresher. And neater. Just like the porch the day before. Huh. 

“Hm. No. Next?” The man looked from Sousuke to Nitori, not a shred of shame on him. 

“Oh, you are tricky aren’t you,” Nitori said cryptically, looking at him like a cat wanting to pounce on its prey. “There’s nothing that can make this go peacefully?” Nitori had settled on looking at the man’s face, it seemed. 

“Not on your life.” The man shut the door in their faces. With a smirk. Sousuke hated him. 

“So. Sweetheart, huh?” Nitori gave Sousuke the most wicked grin he’d ever seen. 

“Not. One. Word. That man is a menace.” Sousuke turned from the door, and made his way down the porch steps. 

“That man, apparently, is Nanase Haruka.”

“You know him!?” Sousuke whipped around and watched as Nitori came down the steps, glancing at something in his hand. 

“No. But his mail is being delivered here.” Nitori showed Sousuke a pilfered letter from the mailbox. “You really should have checked on that yesterday, Sousuke-san.” 

“How is his mail being delivered here? Mikoshiba owns this house!”

“I do believe that is for you to find out, Sousuke-san. I have supplies to gather.” With that, Nitori walked away elegantly. Then all but disappeared, like a puff of smoke. 

That was why Sousuke didn’t like working with Nitori. He was cryptic, mischievous, and off-putting. Sousuke preferred his business relationships to be straight forward and matter of fact. Neither of which were Nitori’s strong suit. 

Sousuke sighed, again, got back in his car, and called Mikoshiba, who picked up on the third ring. “The guy won’t leave. He’s even having his mail delivered to the house.”

“Well, that’s a problem,” Mikoshiba grumbled over the line. 

“Yes. It is.”

“It sounds like your problem, Yamazaki. Get the guy out, or I’m tearing the house down with him in it.” 

“Yes, sir,” Soususke replied sarcastically. Not that it mattered, Mikoshiba had already hung up before he could reply. In the meantime, it looked as though Sousuke was back at square one. 

— — — 

A week or so later, Sousuke returned to the house with a legally binding document. He knocked, and before Nanase could get a word in when he opened the door, Sousuke handed him the document. At least Nanase was dressed this time. 

“This is a demand to vacate the property. Signed and notarized by many legal entities. So, be a peach, and vacate the property.” Sousuke pointed over his shoulder with his thumb to the street beyond. As he did so, he noticed that the windows of the house looked cleaner. Huh. 

Nanase took the document, looked it over, and made it evaporate. In a puff of smoke. “Yeah, that’s not gonna work, sweetheart.”

“Too bad. It’s already a matter of public record. All I have to do is call the authorities, and they’ll force you out.” Nanase looked amused. 

“As I said during our first encounter: Good luck, sweetheart.” Nanase stepped back into the house - were the floors that shiny when Sousuke had first seen them? - and shut the door. Sousuke huffed, stalked to his car, and made the call. 

“I don’t know what to tell you, but I don’t have any records of a demand to vacate at the property you’re calling about,” Ryugazaki explained, thoroughly put out, after Sousuke had explained the reason for the call. It didn’t make sense. 

“I was literally in your office this morning, with Mikoshiba, getting this done. How do you not remember, or have any record of this?” Ryugazaki was the most organized, and most successful, lawyer that Sousuke knew. For him to drop the ball was certainly out of the ordinary

“Oh, I remember our meeting perfectly. I just don’t have any record of it. Nor do I have a record of the document you’re looking for. It is as if it has simply… Disappeared. Poof.” Ah. Now Sousuke understood. 

“Well. Fuck,” Sousuke said eloquently. 

“Whatever you’re contending with, Yamazaki-san, it sounds quite persnickety.” Ryugazaki hung up before Sousuke could reply. Sousuke hated that he was right.

Sousuke had tried asking. He’d tried being forceful. He’d even tried going legal. But now, Sousuke knew it was time to bring in the big guns. He needed to see when Nitori would be ready with whatever he’d had planned. 

— — —

It took another week. A week, a few weird errands he really hoped he’d never have to do again, and one extremely stern warning from Nitori to not question anything. But they were ready. 

Nitori wasn’t like other exorcists. He didn’t banish or destroy the entities he exorcised. He just. Put them somewhere else. And then sealed off the location so that they couldn’t get back in. It was less cruel, Nitori had explained once, than banishment or destruction. Beings needed a place to live, too. Just not in places that intended to be bought, flipped, and resold. 

And with that, Nitori was prepared to dislocate Nanase Haruka from the house that Mikoshiba Seijuurou intended to flip. This time, Sousuke was thankful that he was required to knock on the door. 

They set up on the porch, Sousuke sitting on the steps, his back to whatever Nitori was doing. Nitori didn’t want an audience, and Sousuke figured that the less he knew, the better. 

“So, what are you hoping to achieve with this?” Sousuke startled so badly, he nearly fell off the step he was sitting on. There was Nanase, sat beside him, not a care in the world. He was in a sundress. The blue of the dress matched his eyes. Sousuke blinked to clear his head. 

“The fuck? It worked already?”

“Whatever your friend is doing will definitely not work. Valiant effort though.” He was smirking. Nanase was smirking. Was he wearing eyeliner? Sousuke felt his face flush and his pulse accelerate. 

Sousuke didn’t have time to deal with whatever his body was doing. He had a half-demon to be outraged at. 

“What the actual love of fuck. Why can’t you just leave?” Sousuke snapped. 

“Because I don’t want to,” Nanase shrugged as he answered. 

“Look, you spineless heathen,” Sousuke turned to lecture the man beside him, “you are going to leave, or we are going to make you.”

“Apparently, we are not going to be making him do anything,” Nitori replied. “It’s not working.” A very self-satisfied smile took over Nanase’s face. 

“Oh, just fuck off,” Sousuke grumbled. 

“Shh, sweetheart, shh. I’m trying to savour your failure. It’s absolutely glorious.” 

Sousuke stood and marched to his car. He didn’t have time for his. He had an extremely stubborn half-demon to forcibly evict from a house that needed to be flipped. 

— — — 

“Are you really sure we gotta do this?” Mikoshiba looked uneasy. He looked towards his ragtag crew - his siblings - and the few tools they’d brought with them. Then he looked back at Sousuke. Clearly, he did not like Sousuke’s plan. “I mean. Nitori says this is a lost cause.” Figured Mikoshiba had a soft spot for him. Sousuke gave him a stern look, and began listing things off on his fingers. 

“I tried asking, I tried force, I tried legalities, and I even tried dislocation. Nothing worked. You were the one who said you’d tear the house down around his ears. So, put your money where you mouth is, and hop to!” Mikoshiba sighed, gave Sousuke a withering glare, but nonetheless motioned the other two Mikoshibas into action. 

They’d made it up to the porch when Mikoshiba paused. “Holy fuck,” he murmured. 

“What?” Sousuke asked. 

“The roof.” Mikoshiba explained no further as he pointed upwards. Sousuke looked. There, sitting right on the peak of the roof, was Nanase, smiling down at them, in loose pants, a shirt, and a flowy cardigan. But it wasn’t the man that Mikoshiba was gaping at. It was the roof itself. 

Two weeks ago, it had been patchy and falling apart. But now. Now, it was pristine. 

“Who?” Mikoshiba shouted up at the man on the roof. “Who did you get to work on the roof?” 

“No one,” Nanase shrugged. He was always shrugging. “The house is simply fixing itself. It needs power.” Mikoshiba took a step back, and so did his siblings. 

“Oh, now I get it. Alright Yamazaki, your job is done here. On to the next one!” Mikoshiba and company stepped away from the property, loaded up their truck, and drove off. No explanation. Nothing. Sousuke just stood there, watching them drive off, stunned. 

“Looks like you failed, sweetheart.” Sousuke didn’t even jump as Nanase’s voice came from directly behind him. He didn’t even want to know how he’d gotten down from the roof without a ladder. He just closed his eyes for a breath and turned to face the bane of his existence. 

“In all the time I’ve done this job, I have never encountered a being as stubborn as you. What, pray tell, is your fucking deal?” 

“House needed power. I needed a house. Your friend buying it before I moved in was merely bad timing and mildly inconvenient.”

“Mildly inconvenient.”

“Yeah. Took some energy to make the sale and the legal things go away. Energy the house needed. I’d call that quite inconvenient, actually, but I was trying to be polite.”

“There isn’t a polite bone in your body.”

“True. But now the house is mine. For good. Gotta say, I’m gonna miss meeting you like this, sweetheart.”

“I most certainly will not. Enjoy your ill gotten gains.” Sousuke turned away from Nanase Haruka for what he hoped would be the very last time, and made his way to his car. With any luck, whatever project Mikoshiba came up with next would require his skills. 

— — —

For the next few weeks, Sousuke kept busy. It was prime flipping season for Mikoshiba, what with summer right around the corner, and there were a few properties that needed Sousuke’s particular skill set. 

It wasn’t hard, necessarily, to dislodge various spirits and beings from abandoned places. Usually, all Sousuke had to do was ask, and many of them were more than happy to move onto somewhere else. Then, Sousuke placed protection charms around the property, and that was that. Job done. For the trickier ones, he called on Nitori for his help, and gave him his cut of Mikoshiba’s payout. 

But Sousuke couldn’t help but feel irritated, all the while. He’d just finished scoping out a duplex when the frustration started to eat away at him again. 

He’d never failed before. And yet, he’d failed to dislodge Nanase Haruka from that particular house. Sousuke knew about dwellings that had a bit more oomph than others, but those dwellings were usually passed down somehow - through family, or inheritance. He’d never heard of a being just moving into a dwelling that needed power. And it irked him. 

Pushing his irritation to the side, Sousuke walked up to the duplex, and knocked on the door to the left. The spirit inside swished the curtains in the front window, then walked right through the door, making Sousuke take a careful step back. 

“Well hey handsome!” the spirit chirped. He was male, small and blonde, and smiled something a little devious. He reminded Sousuke of Nitori. Just a little bit. 

“This place was just purchased for renovation,” Sousuke said. “You need to find somewhere else to haunt.” The spirit pouted. 

“Aww, no fun. Where am I supposed to go?”

“Don’t know, don’t care. But you can’t stay here.” 

“Boo. You brute.” Before Sousuke could respond, a voice piped up from behind him. He knew that voice. All too well. 

“It’s okay, Nagisa. You can come stay with me.” 

“Yay! Thanks, Haru-chan!” The spirit - Nagisa, Sousuke assumed - drifted toward the voice. Sousuke turned very, very slowly. 

“Trying to take my job away from me now?” he asked. Nanase shrugged. Again with the fucking shrugging. 

“Nah. Keep your job. I’m just helping a friend.”

“And I love you for it, Haru-chan!” The spirit kissed Nanase on the cheek and swished away. Nanase smiled. It was soft and fond. Sousuke didn’t know why it made his heart race. He blamed the early summer heat. 

Sousuke turned back to the house, placed a charm on the door, and hoped that was enough. He wanted to get out of here. He turned again, and faced Nanase, who hadn’t moved an inch. 

“I was really hoping never to see you again,” Sousuke gritted out. Whatever gnawing anxiety was settling in the pit of his stomach was really getting on his nerves. 

“Is that really what you were hoping?” Nanase asked, raising an eyebrow at him skeptically. 

“Yes. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have people to see who aren’t you.” Sousuke was extremely tempted to shove Nanase out of the way as he strode past, but decided that that particular level of pettiness was best reserved for when Rin was really pissing him off. 

Sousuke stalked to his car, and looked out of the corner of his eye. Nanase merely walked down the street, towards his own house - how Sousuke had missed that they were in the same neighbourhood, he didn’t know - without a second glance.

The pang of frustration flared up in Sousuke’s gut again, mingling with the anxiety. He couldn’t put his finger on why, but everything Nanase did got under his skin. 

Grinding his teeth, Sousuke started his car and drove home, preparing the report he’d have to send to Mikoshiba in his head. 

— — —

“I don’t get what the big deal is,” Rin said, “from all the bitching you’ve done, it sounds like you should be happy this job is no longer your problem.” Sousuke was at Rin and Tachibana’s apartment for their weekly pizza and drinks night following the incident at the duplex. And Rin sounded exasperated. 

“You don’t get it,” Sousuke responded moodily. “I’ve never failed a job before. And being reminded of it is really fucking annoying.” Sousuke took a very, very large chug of his beer. 

“You didn’t fail, necessarily. Sei just dropped the issue.”

“But I still didn’t manage to get the damn half-demon out! Fuckin’ Nanase. He’s so fucking annoying, with all the shrugs and the smirks and the dresses.”

“Yes, so I’ve heard. Repeatedly.” Rin took a sip of his own drink, and shot a knowling glance Tachibana’s way. 

“If I may be so bold,” Tachibana said placidly, taking Rin’s hint, “it kind of sounds to me like you’re sad you have nothing to do with him anymore.” Sousuke blinked up at him, confused to all hell. 

“The fuck are you talking about?”

“Well,” Tachibana squirmed a little, clearly expecting this course of action, but not enjoying it, “you talk about him the way Rin used to talk about me. Like you’re interested in him. Like you want to get to know him better. You just don’t really know it yet.” Rin gaped at his husband for a moment before turning his wide eyes on Sousuke. 

“Holy fuck, Sou, he’s right! You like him!”

“I most certainly do not,” Sousuke grumbled. 

“Except you do. You totally do! Holy fuck, it makes so much sense!”

“What makes sense?”

“The guy got under your skin. You snarked him, and he sassed you. And you liked it! You like him!” 

Sousuke had to think about that for a minute. It was true that Sousuke hadn’t expected Nanase to sass him that first time. And he’d gotten a bit of a thrill from verbally sparring with him afterwards. But he couldn’t have a crush on the menace. Could he? No. But. 

“Fuck.” 

“I mean, what you two do with your time is none of my business. But I suppose that would be something you two could do, yes.” Rin nodded sagely, as if he’d just solved all of Sousuke’s problems. Then, Sousuke sighed and rested his head against the table with a loud thunk. 

“Of course I fell for the half-demon menace that made my life difficult for a month.” 

“If he isn’t making your life difficult, I doubt you’d like him as much as you seem to,” Tachibana said. And it wasn’t like Sousuke could argue with that logic at all. 

———

Sousuke knocked on the door. A month and a bit ago, he’d been here to drive Nanase out of the house and call it a job well done. But now, he was here for entirely different reasons. And he was nervous. Not that he’d ever admit to it. 

“Oh, it’s for you Haru-chan!” The spirit - Nagisa - that Nanase had saved opened the door with a shit-eating grin. “You be nice to him, Sou-chan! Or I’ll haunt you!”

“Good luck trying,” Sousuke said, confused. Sou-chan? The fuck?

“Hush, Nagisa. I’ve got this.” Nanase came up behind the spirit, and walked right through him and out onto the porch, closing the door behind him. “I was under the impression you never wanted to see me again, Yamazaki.” Sousuke blinked in surprise. 

“You know my name?” Nanase rolled his eyes. 

“It’s on your card,” he said, pulling the card out of the pocket of his jeans. His tight jeans. Topped with a crop top. Sousuke felt his face heating up. 

“How did you get my card?” Nanase didn’t reply, just pointed towards the roof. “Mikoshiba. Right.” 

“Yeah. He came back and helped with a couple of the upstairs rooms. When he saw Nagisa, he gave me your card. I thought that was why you were here.” Nanase looked wary. Sousuke could understand why. The last time they saw each other, Sousuke had been in the middle of dislocating Nanase’s newest houseguest. 

“No,” Sousuke sighed, rubbing the back of his neck anxiously. “I’m here for you. It’s been brought to my attention that I might be interested in you.”

“Interested in getting rid of me?”

“Interested in getting to know you.” Nanase paused, blinking in confusion. 

“Someone had to tell you that you like me?”

“I can be a little dense about these things.” Nanase huffed a laugh. 

“Alright. How do you want to go about this?”

“I was hoping I could take you out for coffee.”

“How about you take me out for dinner and we see if you stick around for coffee tomorrow morning? I’ll ask Nagisa nicely to remain scarce.” There was a mischievous glint in Nanase’s eyes, and a small smile playing on his lips. How could Sousuke say not to that?

“Sure, let’s do that.” Sousuke reached out, palm up, and raised his eyebrow in question. Nanase took his hand, and led them down the porch steps and up the street. 

Sousuke had intended on dislocating one half-demon named Nanase Haruka when they met over a month ago. But now. Now Sousuke didn’t want him going anywhere.

**Author's Note:**

> I can be found flailing on [tumblr](https://cattatonically.tumblr.com/).


End file.
